"My Father's day has neither beginning nor end."
"Come, go with me," went on the woman eagerly, "we shall hear them praise your name."
"I will go with you," said he, a strange look in his eyes.
She ran from the room and presently came back with a suit of new clothes which she had borrowed from a dealer: Her face was aglow with pride and joy as she spread them before him.
"What are they for?" he asked in gentle surprise.
"For you," she said, "that you may go into the house of the Lord robed as—as others are."
A blended look of wonder and pain passed over his face.
"The spirit of the man is not clothed with the wool of the sheep that was slain," he said gently. "I will go as I am, and fear naught in my Father's presence."
She led him down several streets till they reached a grand thoroughfare. Along this they went side by side, jostled by the fashionable throng, till they came to a stately church. Going up the broad stone steps they entered the great Gothic doors. A group of men in the vestibule laughed at his long hair and ragged attire. Elegantly dressed ushers were seating the people as they entered. They did not speak to the woman and her son, but smiled at one another, and passed some jests in undertones. After awhile one of them drew near, and said to her:—
"Have you not made a mistake, my good woman? This is St. —— Church. St. ——'s is the next below."